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The importance of motivation to human life and work can be judged by the number of theories that have been propounded to explain human’s behaviour. They explain human motivation through human needs and human nature. Prominent among these theories which are particularly relevant to entrepreneurship are Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory and McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory.

1. Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory : Prof A. H. Maslow developed a

theoretical framework for understanding human motivation which has been widely acclaimed. According to him, a person’s effectiveness is a function of matching his opportunity with the appropriate position of hierarchy of needs. Process of motivation begins with an assumption that behaviour, at least in part, is directed towards the satisfaction of needs. Maslow proposed that human needs can be arranged in a particular order from the lower to the higher as shown in Figure II.

The need hierarcy is as follows :

5 Self-fulfillment 4 needs Ego 3 needs Social 2 needs Safety 1 needs Physiological needs

(i) Basic Physiological Needs : The physiological needs relate to the

survival and maintenance of human life. These needs include such things as food, clothing, air, water and other necessaries of life which are biological in nature. These needs are primary needs.

(ii) Safety and Security Needs: After satisfying the ‘physiological needs,

people want the assurance of maintaining a given, economic level. They want job security, personal bodily security, security of source of income, provision for old age, insurance - against risks, etc.

(iii) Social Needs: Man is a social being. He is, therefore, interested in

conversation, sociability, exchange of feelings and grievances; companionship, recognition, belongingness, etc.

(iv) Esteem and Status Needs: These needs embrace such things as self-

confidence, independence, achievement, competence, knowledge and success. These needs boost the ego of individual. They are also known as egoistic needs. They are concerned with prestige and status of the individual.

(v) Self-Fulfillment Needs: The final step under the need priority model

is the need for self-fulfillment or the need to fulfill what a person considers to be his mission in life. It involves realizing one’s potentialities for continued self-development and for being creative in the broadest sense of the word. After his other needs are fulfilled, a man has the desire for personal achievement. He wants to do something which is challenging and since this challenge gives him enough dash and initiative to work, it is beneficial to him in particular and to the society in general. The sense of achievement gives him psychological satisfaction.

Maslow felt that the needs have a definite sequence of domination. Second need does not dominate until first need is reasonably satisfied and third need does not dominate until first two needs have been reasonably satisfied and so on. The other side of the needs hierarcy is that man is a wanting animal, he continues to want something or the other. He is never fully satisfied. If one need is satisfied, the other need arises.

As said above (according to Maslow), needs arise in a certain order of preference and not randomly. Thus, if one’s lower level needs (physiological and security needs) are unsatisfied, he can be motivated only by satisfying his lower level needs and not satisfying his higher level needs. Another point to note is that once a need or a certain order of needs is .satisfied, it ceases to be a motivating factor. Man lives for bread alone as long as it is not available. In the absence of air one can’t live, it is plenty of air which ceases to be motivating.

The physiological and security needs are finite and tangible, but the needs of higher order are sufficiently infinite and are likely to be dominant ones in persons at higher levels in the organisation. This has been proved by various studies. A study by Boris Blai supported this by showing that managers and professionals in U.S.A. highly value self-realization, while service and manual workers value job security most highly. Further, a survey of 200 factory workers in India reported that they give top priority to job security, earnings and personal benefits - all lower order needs. Studies have also revealed that those needs, which are thought to be most important like social needs, egoistic needs and self-realization, are also thought to be the best satisfiers. One study on two thousand and eight hundred managers in eleven countries reported that security, belongingness esteem and self-realization needs are progressively less satisfied according to the pattern of the needs priority model.

Appraisal of Need Hierarchy Model: The need priority model may not be

apply at all times in all places. Surveys in continental European countries and Japan have shown that the model does not apply very well to their managers. Their degrees of satisfaction of needed does not vary according to the need priority model. For example, workers in Spain and Belgium felt that their esteem needs are better satisfied than their security and social needs, Apparently, cultural differences are an important cause of these differences. Thus, need hierarchy may not follow the sequence postulated by Maslow. Even if safety need is not satisfied, the egoistic or social need may emerge.

Proposition that one need is satisfied at one time is also of doubtful validity. The phenomenon of multiple motivation is of great practical importance in understanding the behaviour-of man. Man’s behaviour at any time is mostly, guided by multiplicity of motives. However one or two motives in any situation may be proponent, while, others may be of secondary importance. Moreover, at different levels of needs, the motivation will be different. Money can act as a motivator only for physiological and social needs, not for satisfying higher level needs. Employees are enthusiastically motivated by what they are seeking, more than by what they already have. They may react cautiously in order to keep what they already have, but they move forward with enthusiasm when they are seeking something else. In other words, man works for bread alone as long as it is not available.

There are always some people in whom, for instance, need for self- esteem seems to be more prominent than that of love. There are also creative people in whom the drive for creativeness seems to be more important. In certain people, the level of operation may be permanently lower. For instance, a person who has experienced chronic unemployment may continue to be satisfied for the rest of his life if only he can get enough food. Another cause of reversal of need hierarcy is that when a need has been satisfied for a long time, it may be under-valued.

2. McClelland’s Acquired Needs Theory

Each person tends to develop certain motivational drives as a result of his cognitive pattern and the environment in which he lives. David McClelland gave a model of motivation which is based on three types of needs, namely, achievement, power and affiliation. They are as follows:

(i) Need for achievement (n-Ach): a drive to excel, advance and grow; (ii) Need for power (n-Pow): A drive to influencing others and situations;

and

(iii) Need for affiliation (n-Aft): A drive for friendly and close interpersonal

(i) Achievement Motivation: Some people have a compelling drive to

succeed and they strive for personal achievement rather than the rewards of success that accompany it. They have a desire to do something better or more efficiently than it has been done before This drive is the achievement need (n- Ach). From researches into the area of achievement need, McClelland found that high achievers differentiate themselves from others by their desire to do things better. They seek situations where they can attain personal responsibility for finding solutions to, problems, where they can receive rapid feedback on their performance so they can set moderately challenging goals. High achievers are not gamblers; they dislike succeeding by chance. They prefer the challenge of working at a problem and accepting the personal responsibility for success or failure, rather than leaving the outcome to chance or the actions of others.

(ii) Power Motivation: The need for power (n-Pow) is a drive to have

impact, to be influential, and to control others. Individuals high in n-Pow enjoy being “in charge”, strive for influence over others, prefer to be placed into competitive and status-oriented situations, and tend to be more concerned with gaining influence over others and prestige than with effective performance. Power-motivated people wish to create an impact on their organisations and are wiling to take risks to do so.

(iii) Affiliation Motivation: This need has received the least attention of

researchers. Affiliation need (n-Aft) can be viewed as the desire to be liked and accepted by others. 1t is the drive to relate to people on a social basis. Individuals with a high affiliation motive strive for friendship, prefer cooperative situations rather than competitive ones, and desire relationships involving a high degree of mutual understanding.

People possess the above needs in varying degrees. However, one of the needs will tend to be more characteristic of the individual rather than the other two. Individual with a high-need for achievement thrive on jobs and projects that tax their skills and abilities. Such individuals are goal-oriented in their activities, seek a challenge and want task relevant feedback. Individuals with

high affiliation needs value interpersonal relationships and exhibit sensitivity towards other people’s feeling. But individuals with the high power needs seek to dominate, influence or have control over others.

McClelland also suggests that these three needs may simultaneously be acting on an individual. But, in case of an entrepreneur, the high need for achievement is found dominating one. In his view, the people with high need for achievement are characterised by the following :

(i) They set moderate, realistic and attainable goals for them.

(ii) Prefer to situations in which they can find solutions for solving personal responsibility.

(iii) They need concrete feedback on how well they are doing.

(iv) They have need for achievement for attaining personal accomplishment. (v) They look for challenging tasks.

Entrepreneurial motivation may be defined as a set of motives such as high need to achieve, moderate need for power and low affiliation motive which induce people to set up and run their own enterprises. Apart from these, entrepreneurs have other behavioural dimensions such as, tolerance for ambiguity, problem solving, creativity, etc.